background: culex pipiens complex shows variations in morphological and biological characters including differ­ent biological forms and has medical and veterinary importance. because of having morphological variations, some­times it is not easy to separate this species from cx. quinquefasciatus and cx. torrentium . the aim of this study was to   identify the   culex pipiens complex species in o...

PURPOSE To describe and evaluate an application of sonography, transorbital color Doppler flow imaging of the carotid siphon and major intracranial arteries, and to compare it with transtemporal color Doppler flow imaging. METHODS The carotid siphon and major arteries at the base of the brain of 50 healthy volunteers were screened using the transorbital color Doppler flow sonography. These ar...

Aplysia siphon sensory cells exhibit heterosynaptic facilitation of transmitter release during both sensitization and classical conditioning of the siphon withdrawal response. In the present study, we asked whether facilitation must invariably enhance transmission at all terminals of a neuron or whether facilitation can instead occur at one set of terminals without also occurring at other termi...

Short-term habituation (STH) is the decrease in behavioral responding observed during repeated stimulation at regular intervals. For siphon-elicited siphon withdrawal in Aplysia (S-SWR), we previously showed that the amplitude of responses measured in LFS-type siphon motor neurons (LFS MNs) during training is dependent on the stimulus interval used and is training-site specific. The major sourc...

The siphon withdrawal response (SWR) of Aplysia supports several forms of learning that are under both excitatory and inhibitory control. Here we examine the role of interneuronal processing on the regulation of siphon responses, with an emphasis on the role of inhibition. We focus on the recurrent circuit formed by the excitatory interneuron L29 and the inhibitory interneuron L30, and show tha...

The tail-elicited siphon withdrawal reflex (TSW) has been a useful preparation in which to study learning and memory in Aplysia. However, comparatively little is known about the neural circuitry that translates tail sensory input (via the P9 nerves to the pleural ganglion) to final reflex output by siphon motor neurons (MNs) in the abdominal ganglion. To address this question, we examined the f...

The gill- and siphon-withdrawal reflex of Aplysia undergoes transient inhibition following noxious stimuli such as tail shock. This behavioral inhibition appears to be due in part to transient presynaptic inhibition of the siphon sensory cells, which can be mimicked by application of the peptide FMRFamide. Although FMRFamide is widespread in the Aplysia nervous system, an FMRFamide-containing i...

The widely held view that neurogenic placodes are vertebrate novelties has been challenged by morphological and molecular data from tunicates suggesting that placodes predate the vertebrate divergence. Here, we examine requirements for the development of the tunicate atrial siphon primordium, thought to share homology with the vertebrate otic placode. In vertebrates, FGF signaling is required f...